The shortage of dairy products, mainly fresh milk, worries merchantsespecially those who run small businesses, Fernandez pointed out.
“The lack of milk kills the neighborhood merchant, because he loses all the sales that come after him,” he said.
The leader explained that in small neighborhood shops they sell from 20 to 60 liters of fresh milk per daywhile in a larger autoservice the sale reaches 400 to 500 liters.
Taking into account these figures and the current price of a liter of fresh milk ($37), in the case of smaller businesses, if they do not sell at least those 20 liters, they have a direct loss of $12.60 (the cost to the retailer is $36.37 per liter and you earn $0.63 per liter), which may seem insignificant, but ends up being a relevant detriment if you consider what regular customers do not buy (other products), because they are forced to go get the milk and other products elsewhere.
In addition, although all businesses have been affected by shortages, in medium-sized stores and large stores there are usually more options for dairy products, for example boxed milk that costs $50 a liter, but in some neighborhoods Peripheral consumers need yes or yes the priced milk, the one at $37 per liter, because they cannot pay more for a product similar to the one that is missing.
Other brands can not cover the gap
First, the by-products began to be lacking, such as butter or desserts, but later the difficulty for an adequate supply reached fresh milk, Fernández explained.
From the Chamber of the Dairy Industry of Uruguay (CILU) they reported that the shortage is between 25 and 30%.
The president of the National Association of Milk Producers (ANPL), Leandro Galarraga, affirmed that the domestic market had a loss of collection of 20% last monthcompared to March.
Dairy farmers who send their milk to Conaprole indicated that they see with concern how some products of the cooperative to which they send their milk and of which they are a part are replaced on the shelves by offers from other brands.
Conaprole offers 90% of the products that can be found on the marketindicated Fernández, who argued that the other brands “cannot cope” to supply what does not come from Conaprole given the aforementioned conflict.
